


no love like your love

by montivagant



Category: Iron Man (Comics)
Genre: F/M, current comics remember rumiko exists challenge, remember that bookmark tony has that's pics of ru? yeah., the major character death is rumiko bc she's dead, this is just real sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 03:02:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18540970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/montivagant/pseuds/montivagant
Summary: Set immediately post Tony Stark: Iron Man #3A man spends a night dreaming.





	no love like your love

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this way back when ts:im #3 came out & then cried for a while abt it. so now everyone gets to cry abt it with me

A beep grabs his attention for a split second--those two animals playing chess again--and he’s willing to give them a minute of his time before he turns back to the mass of code in front of him. Each discrete section is portioned off, carefully separated from each other.

For good reason, he considers, this is far and above one of the most mind-bogglingly (stupendously) stupid (genius, ridiculous, _amazing_ , foolhardy) ideas he’s come up with in a good while. He’s getting the feeling if he had an A.I. hovering over him right now they’d be yelling at him. MOTHERBOARD is off doing something else, he thinks talking to Jocasta. He’s glad they get along--and he’s getting off topic. 

Tony sighs, leans back in his chair, rubs a hand over his (very) tired eyes. Breathe, he reminds himself, you need to _breathe_. 

“This is-- _stupid_. It’s, it’s unethical on so many levels, not to mention she--" his voice cracks and he hunches in on himself, hand still over his eyes, “--I have no idea if she’d want this. No idea if I’d get her _right_ , no idea how _angry_ she’ll be, I--" he pauses, takes a breath. His hand hovers over the trash can.. it’s the right thing to do, if not the thing he so badly wishes for.

“I can't. I shouldn’t. It’s wrong.” Tears are squeezing their way out through cracks in his facade, “I _want_ to,” the sheer pain in his voice surprising even himself into a wince, “I want her _back_ \--I--she--" heavy sobs shake him, knees draw up to his chest (still he protects it first, learned habits so hard to drop).

He’s not sure how much time has passed before he feels a hand on his shoulder, but it’s long enough that the tears on his face have dried. He jumps, looking up into Jocasta’s human face. Another wince.

“Hi! Sorry! I didn’t know you were up too, I’m--kinda in the middle of everything aren’t I.”

“You should sleep,” is all she says, “can’t have you tired on the first full day of eScape.”

He wants to hug her, pick her up and spin her around, but he'll settle for, “thank you. You’re right.” He can’t trash it, he can't, but he does close the windows, making sure they’re all saved in the correct master folder. Jocasta stands nearby, she’d be hovering if her presence wasn’t so comforting. A sigh.

“That looked complicated.” Neutral. Very neutral. But her voice softens when she speaks again, “she was a wonderful woman.”

Tony stumbles in grabbing his bookmark off the desk (it went, somewhere). And his own voice is soft when he answers, “she was.” He finds it, stares at it for a second before pulling himself out of the chair he’s been sitting in for, well, he’s not gonna think about how long it’s been. “Thank you, Jocasta, really.”

“It’s no trouble at all. Sleep well.” That sentence is at least pointed. 

He grins, “you too, okay?”

She smiles and nods, turns to leave the room. Tony falls into step, holding out the strip of photos for her to look at. Jocasta takes them, looks at them for a full minute, long enough to make his hands itch. 

“She was beautiful as well.” 

“Yeah.”

They turn their separate ways after the door, one last nod to each other. 

They won’t talk about this again.


End file.
